RE: Commercial Distribution?

From: David D.W. Downey (pgpkeys_at_pgpkeys.net)
Date: 01/07/04

  • Next message: Olaf Hoyer: "Re: raid: dell perc 4/dc support & amr queries" 
    To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 09:27:50 -0500

    I think you're missing the point here. There were 2 questions asked in the
    original thread. First was are there any commercial distributions and
    second, are there any companies that provide a for-fee support chain.
    Linux was brought up as a well known example of the types of services being
    requested by the poster. He gets a "Linux is a kernel not an operating
    system" comment instead, which while factually true, proves to the case of
    missing the forest for the trees. Get him his help if you know it, otherwise
    debate finer points in classrooms.

    To the original poster: Just to end the Linux/FreeBSD stupidity, as these
    knuckleheads have stated, yes, Linux is a kernel, however as happens in
    human language, Linux has come to mean more than just the kernel, it's come
    to mean the entire distribution of applications with it as well. None of the
    applications will run without a kernel, nor would the kernel be much use if
    there was no shell interpreter or other application. Yes, the word Linux
    itself refers to the kernel, but for them to suggest to you that Linux is
    not an operating system but simply a collection of software packages stuck
    around a kernel is laughable at best. This is usually a sign of <some
    operating system here> purists trying to wrangle details in a way that
    somehow makes their <operating system name here> better than XYZ. Please
    read http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/o/operating_system.html to understand
    what an operating system is. An operating system IS the kernel. Any
    additional software that comes with it reside in the application layer which
    is NOT part of the operating system. FreeBSD is entirely no different in
    that regard.

    The point still remains, that if I understood your question correctly you
    were wondering if there were any commercial FreeBSD distributions that also
    provided technical support ranging from kernels to individual applications.
    An example of the difference would be Red Hat which is a commercialized
    distribution and Debian which is a GPL'd project that has no technical
    support, other than it's mailing lists and IRC chat channels.

    Check out this list of companies willing to provide support for the FreeBSD
    distribution. Some are of higher caliber than others of course, so check
    them all.

    http://www.unixporting.com/freebsd-support.html

    http://www.bsdmall.com/fbsdsupport.html (I'd check this one for sure)

    http://www.freebsdmall.com/cgi-bin/fm/support.html (Same as abve)

    http://www.freebsdsystems.com/support.html (iNet system specific)

    http://www.freebsd.org/commercial/consulting.html (DEFINITELY READ THIS)

    http://www.bsdsearch.com/dir/support/commercial/consulting.php (Nice list)

    http://bim.bsn.com/~jhs/freebsd/consultants.html

    Check these out. I have a few clients I work with that also offer technical
    support on Solaris, Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD and FreeBSD.

    You name it. These are all different operating systems arround a linux
    kernel.
    FreeBSD is the operating system, linux isn't. That's the whole difference.

    -Harry

    P.S: Lot's of tools are developed by *BSD developers and included instead of

    GNU versions (ls e.g.)

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  • Next message: Olaf Hoyer: "Re: raid: dell perc 4/dc support & amr queries"

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